FBI Special Agent Renee Green talks with a crowd of parents at Vista Del Mar School in San Clemente about how to keep their kids safe online. JOSH FRANCIS, FOR THE REGISTER

What to do if your child is sexually exploited online:

• Preserve the evidence

• Don't perform own forensics

• Call the police or the FBI

What to do if your child is the victim of a physical crime:

• Take them to the hospital

• Call the police or FBI

• Seek therapy for the child

Los Angeles Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force: 562-624-4028

Orange County FBI satellite office: 714-939-8699

Two FBI agents presented some harsh facts to parents at Vista Del Mar School about how vulnerable kids can be on the Internet.

The Oct. 8 presentation was coordinated by the middle school Principal Sandra McKinney's husband, Jeff, a former FBI agent. Two of his former colleagues from the San Diego office presented some statistics about how often children are sexually exploited via the Web and how underreported the exploitations are.

Special Agents Kris Robinson and Renee Green, members of the FBI's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, deal with child abductions, child prostitution and child pornography crimes almost every day.

Robinson said this type of crime can happen anywhere and technology like the smartphone is contributing to the problem. The agents said about 34 percent of children are exposed to pornographic material and 27 percent say they have been exposed to unwanted sexual material.

But the agents said the number of the crimes being reported is low because children fear the repercussions of their actions.

“A lot of times they don't want to report it because they're afraid of punishment, and when they do report it to their parents, their parents may not think that it's a big deal,” Green said.

The agents said a small percentage of children receive aggressive solicitations from people they meet online who want to meet them or know where they live. Robinson said many times predators will even send money and gifts to the children they are targeting.

“Sometimes someone is doing it to a lot of people and you reporting it to us and letting us know, whether it's the FBI or your local police or sheriff's department, can be very helpful for us to see if somebody is in a pattern of behavior where they're soliciting to a lot of children. So any little nugget we can get to put that together is sometimes helpful,” Green said.

The agents said predators use an array of ways to get in contact with children including through Facebook, Tinychat, ooVoo, Skype, FaceTime, Snapchat and online games.

The agents told the crowd of more than 50 parents that children are easy targets because they are curious, they have a need for attention, a need to please and a need to defy their parents.

The agents offered several suggestions for how parents can keep their kids safe:

• Establish guidelines and rules for Internet usage.

• Place the computer in a common room.

• Know what your children like to do online and ask questions about their activity.

• Familiarize yourself with the Internet.

• Know who is communicating with your children online.

• Explain to your children that instant messaging is for communicating with only real life friends.

• Have kids talk on the phone when they are around you and not just text.

• Communicate with your children and don't create an environment where the child is afraid to tell you about exploitation.

Also on hand at the event was Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy Rod Valdez, the school resource officer in San Clemente.

He told the crowd that simple things like having a child talk on the phone when they are around their parent instead of texting can help parents be aware of what their kids are doing.

“Just be aware of what your kids are doing and set some rules,” Valdez said.

Another big exploit the agents said children are falling victim too are webcam exploitations that usually involve a predator tricking a child into sending them inappropriate photos of themselves and then blackmailing them to send more.

“I was shocked at how low the statistics are for reporting,” parent Keith McLachlan said. “I feel like you have to pry info out of children.”

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